Tag Archives: process
Now visualize Business Process Flow in the form of Kanban Board and categorize rows for better data clarity in Dynamics 365 CRM & PowerApps
Growth of an organization depends upon the collective effort put together by all the departments; be it Sales, Marketing, Finance or Accounts. This effort includes pursuing each and every business process diligently and maintaining decorum while doing it. In order to pursue these processes, one needs to know about it and understand it. Once it is done, all you have to do is prioritize the work and follow the processes to the T.
Kanban Board – our latest visualization tool which provides Kanban like view of Dynamics 365 CRM records has recently released two new features which will help you achieve the above feat effortlessly. These new features are as follows:
- Business Process Flow
- Row Grouping
Business Process Flow (BPF)
This new feature will provide you simplistic view of business processes. It will organize and categorize the records of an entity as per the Business Process Flow stages of that entity in a Kanban View. For example, let’s say you have enabled BPF function for Opportunity entity. Now, the records will be organized in Kanban view according to the BPF associated with Opportunity entity in Dynamics 365 CRM and lanes would be categorized by the BPF stages i.e. Qualify – Develop – Propose – Close. You will get a clear view of how many of your records are in which stage of business process and accordingly you can come up with action plan to close all the pending deals.
Row Grouping
Initially, in Kanban Board records were categorized in lanes but now you can categorize the records in rows also. With this added feature, you can easily group records in a row based on any field value which will further help you to take stock of the situation, make plans and implement actions accordingly. For example, if you enable this feature for Case entity on the basis of Priority attribute, then you will get the Kanban View of all records in case entity grouped in row on the basis of priority – High, Normal and Low. Further, you can also drag and drop these records from one row to another and update its status. This grouping will give you clarity about the tasks that needs your immediate attention and help you to take actions accordingly.
You can explore these new features by downloading the solution from our for a trial period of 15 days.
If you have any doubts or want to give suggestions about our product then feel free to mail us at crm@inogic.com
Until then – Stay safe, Stay healthy!
Understanding Your Business Process
It’s simple. For a business system implementation to succeed, the focus (from the start!) must be on how the system supports, integrates with and enhances an organization’s business processes.
This statement supposes, perhaps ambitiously, that the business already has strongly defined business processes.
CRM Implementations Require Standardization
For many organizations, chaos often rules the day – or at the very least hobbles business growth – even after the best implementations.
Implementation success stands or falls almost entirely on the standardization of processes within the enterprise. A single department, team or individual going rogue on a process or best practice will inevitably create chaos. And if not corrected, the negative effects and aftermath are only compounded post-implementation.
Don’t fool yourself. Implementing new technology isn’t a guarantee that business will grow and processes will improve. Enterprise-wide adherence and commitment to user adoption are essential in successful implementations.
While new business systems can truly be a game changer, lack of user adoption can and will negate the technologies potential, making the expense of implementation almost impossible to justify.
PROCESS STANDARDIZATION & BEST PRACTICES
The steps to implementation success are actually and remarkably straightforward – and begin long before the decision to start an implementation is made.
CRM experts are simply not doing their jobs if all they do is sell you the technology for your implementation. The best CRM consultants comprehensively analyze business operations, identify best practices, then standardize these best practices across the enterprise.
Standardization is truly the backbone of successful implementations. And most successful businesses have a tight rein on their processes with a deep understanding of what makes them work.
SUCCESSFUL CRM IMPLEMENTATIONS: STANDARDIZATION MEETS TECHNOLOGY
It is in the deep understanding of – and adherence to – organizational processes that enables the successful integration of a new business system like Dynamics CRM. To maximize the benefit of a CRM implementation to your business, it is equally important that you possess both a deep understanding and commitment to your processes and an equally deep understanding of the pretty remarkable bells and whistles of Dynamics CRM.
Processes, best practices and ultimately successful implementations are reliant on a high-level dedication and support from the top levels of management. And no matter what anyone tries to tell you or sell you, successful implementation of Dynamics CRM always begins with process.
For more details about having a successful CRM implementation with the proper focus on Business Process, call Empellor CRM at 303-482-2909 or visit our .
To More Efficiently Process IoT Data, Move Your Wheelbarrow Closer to Where You Dig
Some of the easiest, most powerful lessons we learn when we are young seem obvious—usually after we learn them. My dad taught me one the first year he let me help him plant his garden when I was a kid. Early one spring, he gave me a shovel and a wheelbarrow and said, “Go dig a row of holes and dump all the dirt in the wheelbarrow.”
So, naturally, I placed the wheelbarrow at the far edge of the garden, put my shovel in the ground at the opposite end, walked the scooped dirt all the way over to the wheelbarrow, and then walked all the way back again to my row of holes.
My dad watched me do this a few times (laughing under his breath I’m sure) until he finally said, “Hey Kevin, don’t you think you’d get the job done faster if you moved your wheelbarrow closer to your holes?” Brilliant.
Lost opportunities due to latency in IoT processing
Believe it or not, this simple lesson can also be applied to the processing of data from your IoT devices. TIBCO—an innovator in microservices tooling—had the opportunity to present this lesson at this year’s Microservices World event as part of a breakout session.
The modern version of the lesson goes like this: Typically, IoT devices are connected directly to an edge device within a local network. The IoT devices send data they collect through the edge devices and up to an IoT platform hosted within a private or public cloud, such as TIBCO Cloud. This platform processes the data—collecting, filtering, and analyzing so that appropriate action is taken. So in network terms, the IoT devices are all close to each other. But, like my wheelbarrow and the garden holes I had dug, this topology puts quite a bit of distance between IoT devices and the IoT platform.
The effect is a high amount of latency between the time data is collected by IoT devices and the time it is acted upon—which can translate into lost opportunities if data isn’t acted upon when it is of highest value.
How to decrease latency in IoT processing
It would seem to make sense then, as my dad would suggest, to move the processing of your IoT data closer to your IoT devices—such as on your edge devices. However, edge devices have limited compute resources (i.e. memory), which in turn limits the size (and functionality) of applications that can be deployed to them when written in traditional languages such as Java. So instead of a wheelbarrow, imagine my dad had given me a teacup.
That’s where the open-sourced Project Flogo can help. It enables developers to visually create event-driven microservices and functions and, most importantly, it builds application executables that are up to 50x smaller than those written in Java—perfectly scaled-down for (teacup-sized) edge devices and new types of serverless environments such as Function-as-a-Services (FaaS). Although small in size, these applications can embed automated decision making with contextual rules and/or machine learning right into the edge device. With Project Flogo, you can process your IoT data more quickly and cost-effectively on edge devices (which are much closer to the source) rather than the cloud. You can see how through a series of short videos.
TIBCO has commercialized Project Flogo within TIBCO Cloud Integration, our market-leading enterprise Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS). TIBCO Cloud Integration not only includes commercial technical support and a wide variety of enterprise connectors, it also includes many productivity features that simplify and accelerate event-driven application development. You can try TIBCO Cloud Integration for a limited time to create applications in a development environment within TIBCO Cloud at no charge.
When you have the right tools, and you move them close to where work is done, you can respond with speed to valuable digital moments. And you can plant gardens with your dad too!
ASU 2018-15 Simplifies the Process for Accounting for Cloud Computing Expenses
Posted by Christopher Miller, Distinguished Solution Specialist
New FASB standard offers guidance on accounting for cloud computing license costs and implementations.
I am frequently contacted by customers and our internal team about how to account for NetSuite costs. As cloud computing became more popular, businesses took different approaches to how they accounted for it on their financial statements. A few of the popular ideas were:
- Treat a cloud computing arrangement as a fixed asset and depreciate it. Capitalize everything.
- Present the contract as prepaid and amortize it as an intangible asset.
- Amortize the contract as an expense and capitalize all of the implementation costs.
- Reference the contract to lease accounting standards and follow those as an analogy for cloud computing.
- Treat the cloud computing arrangement as internally developed software.
Each of these ideas had some merit. However, as the percentage of businesses using cloud products increased, the FASB and other standard setters realized that the “diversity” in practice was growing too large.
So, in 2015, the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-05, “Customer’s Accounting for Fees Paid in a Cloud Computing Arrangement,” to simplify to process. The goal was to help a business determine what kind of contract their arrangement included.
The key determination was to help a user know if their arrangement contained a software license or not. Using the guidance under ASC 985-605, customers are required to determine if their cloud arrangement contains a software license. If the answer is yes, then treat the contract as an internal use software intangible under ASC 350-40. If no, then account for the arrangement as a service contract.
The release of No. 2015-05 clarified several of the key questions presented above. If the cloud computing arrangement included a software license, then the contract was treated as internal-use software. This allowed the purchaser to capitalize the license and related implementation costs. It also clarified that when an arrangement didn’t have a software license embedded, that it was a service contract and should be treated as an operating expense. This clarification put an end to treating service contracts as fixed assets, etc.
However, ASU 2015-5 didn’t determine the process for handling the implementation costs of a service contract. Many of the same questions existed, such as whether you can capitalize implementation costs, or must they all be expensed?
To clarify the process of handling service contract implementations, FASB issued ASU No. 2018-14, effective for all filers after Dec 15, 2019.
Key Provision 1 – Apply Internal Use Software Guidance
When entering into a cloud computing contract that is a service contract, entities will now apply the same guidance toward implementation costs that are used for internal use software. Here are the key guidelines to be aware of when applying this new guidance:
- Project costs to purchase, develop or install the software generally can be capitalized.
- Activities related to testing, customization, configuration and scripting can be capitalized.
- Training and data conversion costs are to be expensed as incurred.
- These costs can be both internal and external, such as payroll, contractors and travel expenses.
Key considerations here are to consider how you define the different terms and the quality of your project timekeeping/management to identify the type of work performed.
Amortization of Implementation Costs
ASU 2018-15 states that implementation costs should be amortized over the term of the associated cloud computing arrangement service on a straight-line basis. In addition, it states that the usage rate (number of transactions, users, data throughput) should not be used as a basis for amortization.
In section 350-40-35-14 the guidance states additional periods to be included in the amortization period:
- An entity (customer) shall determine the term of the hosting arrangement that is a service contract as the fixed noncancellable term of the hosting arrangement plus all of the following:
- Periods covered by an option to extend the hosting arrangement if the entity (customer) is reasonably certain to exercise that option
- Periods covered by an option to terminate the hosting arrangement if the entity (customer) is reasonably certain not to exercise that option
- Periods covered by an option to extend (or not to terminate) the hosting arrangement in which exercise of the option is controlled by the vendor.
- When reassessing the amortization term, an entity shall consider the following to reassess the term:
- Obsolescence
- Technology
- Competition
- Other economic factors
- Rapid changes that may be occurring in the development of hosting arrangements or hosted software
Presentation
The new ASU makes a few critical changes to the presentation of cloud service contracts. A few highlights include:
- 350-40-45-2 An entity shall present the capitalized implementation costs described in paragraph 350-40-25-18 in the same line item in the statement of financial position that a prepayment of the fees for the associated hosting arrangement would be presented.
- 350-40-45-1 An entity shall present the amortization of implementation costs described in paragraph 350-40-35-13 in the same line item in the statement of income as the expense for fees for the associated hosting arrangement.
- 350-40-45-3 An entity shall classify the cash flows from capitalized implementation costs described in paragraph 350-40-25-18 in the same manner as the cash flows for the fees for the associated hosting arrangement.
The key takeaway for presentation in the new guidance is that no costs associated with a CCA Service Contract should be treated as depreciation or amortization and should all be included in operating income.
Disclosure Requirements
There are a few key disclosures required from the new ASU. Specifically they are:
- The nature of its arrangements for cloud computing.
- Any amortization expenses for the period
- Major classes of implementation costs that have been capitalized
- Accumulated amortization of the implementation costs
Conclusion
With the release of ASU 2018-15, the way to manage cloud computing contracts has clarity. It is now a three-step process that consists of determining whether an arrangement has a software license included. Manage the implementation project and capitalize the correct costs. Lastly present the costs correctly based on the new ASU.
by NetSuite filed under
Software Research Reports: The Marketing Automation Selection Process
At Act-On, we’re pretty proud of the recognition we’ve received from numerous analyst reports. We feel this recognition is the direct result of the hard work we put in for our clients to create the most powerful and easiest-to-use marketing automation software on the market. Not only that, but we know that our customers are able to leverage our platform to its unparalleled potential thanks to our best-in-class customer support team and our Marketing as a Service offering, Accelerate.
Yet, while we know why experienced and esteemed analysts are eager to celebrate our powerful marketing automation platform and unrivaled customer service, we want to lift the veil to let you know how these analysts come to their conclusions. With that said, today we’re going to take a sneak peek under the hood to gain a better understanding of software research reports and the selection process for marketing automation platforms.
Let’s dig in!
What Are Software Research Reports?
To begin, let’s all make sure we’re on the same page here. A software research report is a culmination of significant data collection and analysis within a specific market that is packaged as a comprehensive review of the major players in the field and their positioning in relation to one another. (Within the marketing automation space, for instance, the Gartner Magic Quadrant is considered one of the leading analyst reports.)
These reports are designed to give potential consumers better insight into each listed software platform’s highlights and areas of improvement. To ensure accuracy and integrity, research firms apply universal evaluation criteria to each company/platform on their list. This way, consumers and industry leaders alike can better understand how each software company is delivering on their promise and leading the charge toward future innovations.
In most cases, these reports aren’t going to be as cut and dried as many consumers might want. But don’t be fooled; that doesn’t mean they’re not valuable. It’s just that most reports aren’t as simple as “buy this, not that” or “platform A is better than platform B.” It’s usually a little more nuanced than that, as every company and every piece of software is going to have pros and cons based on individual consumers’ unique and diverse needs.
Some companies might need software with limited functionality that performs extremely well within those parameters. Others might be looking for software that can do a lot of things and is constantly innovating toward future advancements. Neither of these approaches are wrong — they’re just different fits for different companies with different needs.
Conveniently enough, this brings us to our next question, which is…
Why Are Software Research Reports Important?
In their own marketing materials, every company is going to speak to their strengths and make claims about their software that may or may not be absolutely true. This sort of chest-pounding is usually subjective, and what might resonate with one user could be viewed entirely differently by another.
Software research reports are vital for consumers because they compile (mostly) objective and accurate reviews of the available vendors and their capabilities and limitations from dependable subject matter experts. These reports combine myriad data points with real customer feedback to help set the record straight and provide actionable insights that lead to more informed purchasing decisions. This is especially valuable when it comes to marketing automation, as the consumer evaluation process is usually lengthy and detailed — and because the final decision will have significant impacts that reverberate throughout the organization for years to come (for better or worse).
While software research reports are an invaluable and necessary part of any purchasing decision, they should be viewed as one piece (albeit, an extremely valuable and important one) of your final choice. Other important factors for evaluating your marketing automation platform should include:
- Customer support
- Existing customer advocacy
- Ease of use
- Time to value
- Technology integrations
- Reporting and analytics
- User reviews
- Your budget and headcount
- Data syncing and visibility
Whatever route you choose, you should feel that your platform of choice satisfies your organization’s unique needs based on the factors above.
How Do Software Research Analysts Come to Their Conclusions?
Software research analysts perform rigorous research in order to reach their conclusions.
First, they establish their objectives — usually by asking themselves a series of questions that will become the basis of their research and, ultimately, the criteria they use to come to their conclusions. From there, they begin drafting formal and informal surveys to share with users, academics, other researchers, investors, and business leaders. They then use the data they’ve collected from all of their various sources to determine trends, patterns, strengths, weaknesses, and potential for each platform in a given space and/or vertical.
Here are just a few of the ways analysts might conduct their research:
- Distributing surveys
- Vendor showcases
- Product demos
- Internal peer discussions
- Reviewing public research materials
- Speaking with vendors directly
- Interviewing vendor customers
- Networking with industry investors
As they go about researching each vendor, analysts also spend a lot of time speaking with applicant organizations to gain insight into:
- Where their platforms excel
- Where they are going to market in the foreseeable future
- Where they are innovating
- Where they think the industry is heading
These conversations can last several hours and often take place over the course of several months.
Now, armed with their initial conclusions, these analysts release their analysis to a larger community of analysts who can further examine and debate these findings from different perspectives — for best results, anonymously.
Analysts then take all of this information into account as they attempt to validate their findings by comparing them with related internal and external research on the same topic. As they go through this process, they often engage in an informed debate of their findings with their peers to come to their final conclusions.
Depending on the industry and software type they do this for dozens of platforms and then bundle their review in an annual report that can either be purchased by consumers or made available to the public. In either case, all vendor promotions and messaging are usually heavily regulated, and most (if not all) marketing materials must be approved by the research group before it can be released.
Gartner Has Named Act-On a “Visionary” in the 2019 Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management
Now that you understand software research reports, why they’re so important, and how software research analysts come to their conclusions, you might appreciate my next statement a bit more:
Act-On has been named a “Visionary” in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management! This is the third year in a row that we’ve been recognized, and we have continued to improve on our overall positioning year after year.
To download the full report and learn more about Act-On’s positioning in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, please download the full report below. Or, if you’d rather cut out the middleman and just get in touch today, you’re only a click away from booking a demo with one of our marketing automation experts!
Business Process Management And Robotic Process Automation: Two Sides Of The Same Automation Coin
Part 8 in the “Intelligent RPA” series about the evolution of robotic process automation and its potential impact on digital transformation.
Historically, companies have always been organized into silos. And when they started to deploy information technology, they implemented information systems that themselves were siloed: human resource management, accounting management, procurement management, logistics management, etc. The desire to streamline business processes has existed for years with huge demand for business process management (BPM) and more recently with robotic process automation (RPA).
What is BPM?
Business process management is a strategic, holistic, and structured approach for optimizing notable repetitive tasks. It deals with process orchestration, extension, optimization, and, of course, innovation. BPM manages structured business processes by bringing human and automated activities into a managed sequence of steps. It fosters teamwork, streamlines collaboration, and automates production workflows.
What is RPA?
Robotic process automation is a tactical, focused, and agile approach for accelerating manual processes. It deals with task automation in a user-centric way. Compatible with any application existing in the information system, RPA handles unmodeled, “naturally grown” processes with UI-based automation. Automation is necessary to integrate legacy systems where APIs don’t exist and direct access to the data is not available. RPA minimizes keying errors, speeds up work, and cuts costs. It frees employees from mundane, repetitive tasks and leverages their human skills for more important tasks.
Why not use BPM and RPA together?
BPM and RPA are fully complementary. They can be integrated seamlessly to leverage their advantages for intelligent automation.
Today’s solutions encompass services that manage workflows and business rules for decision logic to provide end-to-end process visibility. Architects can design and implement structured, automated processes in the cloud, while intelligent RPA helps run repetitive, rule-based, and user interface-focused tasks. An intelligent BPM (iBPM) workflow can trigger intelligent RPA bots and vice versa. RPA can be used as a middleware to gather data from core systems or external websites.
Let’s imagine a use case in banking for onboarding new customers:
- A request from a prospect, coming from an email received from the bank’s website or a visit to a bank’s branch, is handled by an intelligent RPA bot.
- The bot triggers the “Customer Onboarding” process in the workflow.
- The bank clear checks that it is not a cold lead and sends the hot leads to an attended RPA bot – a digital assistant, in our terminology – that helps gather data to execute the know-your-customer mandatory checks for new-customer approval.
- After approval, the workflow automatically creates the bank account and manages provisioning for the checkbook, credit card, web, and mobile app access, and finally sends a confirmation email to the new customer.
Additional scenarios could be found in structured enterprise processes, which can be made even more efficient with flexible task automation for things like invoice handling, asset and purchase order approvals, IT ticket creation, seat allocation as part of employee onboarding, request for material price changes, and so on.
Integrated this way, intelligent BPM and intelligent RPA can drive your organization to an unprecedented level of automation, providing the best for your employees and customers and accelerating the time to business outcomes.
Please visit our SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation web page, and contact us for more information about SAP Intelligent RPA and integrated business process management.
3 Ways to Streamline the Quoting Process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales [Video]
![x3 Ways to Streamline the Quoting Process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales.png.pagespeed.ic.DV4JCRoyA4 3 Ways to Streamline the Quoting Process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales [Video]](https://cdn.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/x3-Ways-to-Streamline-the-Quoting-Process-in-Microsoft-Dynamics-365-for-Sales.png.pagespeed.ic.DV4JCRoyA4.jpg "3 Ways to Streamline the Quoting Process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales [Video]")
Generating quotes in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales can be frustrating. It takes to add an inventory item to an Opportunity or Quote. Add multiple items to a quote and the time really adds up!
If the pricing in the system is inaccurate or reps use outdated discounts, then calculation errors, inconsistency, and legal compliance issues cause further delays.
Only 38% of companies are sending out accurate price quotes. () Manual sales processes lead to errors, time wasted, and money left on the table.
The ability to efficiently is crucial to accelerating sales cycles, increasing business growth, and ensuring your customers have a positive buying experience.
However, the process can involve numerous product configuration parameters that make it a time-consuming and error-prone task.
With so many variables to consider, sales reps often find themselves manually computing prices and then using tools such as Excel or Word to submit a quote or proposal. This tedious process leads to several issues, including:
- calculation errors
- discrepancies in pricing and legal policies
- inconsistency in how the organization’s brand is represented
- wasted time and effort on generating customized quotes
Take a look at our video to learn how to simplify your quoting in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales.
3 Ways to Streamline the Quoting Process
Implement Playbooks and Guided Selling
Configurable wizards walk salespeople step-by-step through each customer engagement, so salespeople create personalized quotes within minutes.
Send Digital Proposals
![314x426xDealHub DealRoom Digital Sales Proposal 461x625.png.pagespeed.ic.6 BaIC 74e 3 Ways to Streamline the Quoting Process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales [Video]](https://cdn.crmsoftwareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/314x426xDealHub-DealRoom-Digital-Sales-Proposal-461x625.png.pagespeed.ic.6_BaIC_74e.png "3 Ways to Streamline the Quoting Process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales [Video]")
Employ instead of Word or Excel. With a digital proposal, one point of interaction replaces multiple files. Your customers can share proposals with internal stakeholders with just a couple of clicks.
Leverage Insights to Optimize Every Deal Stage
Real-time alerts on customer engagement allow salespeople to quickly identify customer intent and track deal progress. They can see which content is resonating and use these insights to inform their conversations with prospects.
integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales automates the sales quoting process, making sales quoting simple and fast. Send accurate, branded, professional sales proposals, and track buyer interaction with those quotes.
Read the full article .
5 reasons how QuickBooks integration with Dynamics 365 CRM can help streamline your business process
Sales and Accounting departments of an organization are interdependent on each other. Both require some data from the other for transparent transactions. However, when both these divisions work on different apps, to sync Sales and Accounting it might be a challenge to the management to control confidential data and every step and transactions have to be monitored to ensure data integrity. It has an overbearing cost of managing two systems individually and a huge chunk of workforce is wasted.
As we know, many organizations use Dynamics 365 CRM for managing their Sales given its intuitive functional architecture. However, Sales is not the only functionality of Dynamics 365, it can be integrated with other systems to perform beyond its defined touchpoints. A good idea would be to integrate Dynamics 365 with Accounting Systems to get best of both worlds. An interface that allows syncing data between Dynamics 365 and Accounting Software can prove to be a lifesaver for organizations.
Intuit QuickBooks is a leading accounting system that is a perfect fit for Dynamics 365 CRM and integrating them together can prove miraculous. It can be used to embed accounting information within Dynamics 365 CRM and therefore be a boon for the Sales and Accounting team who can interact smoothly. For instance, Dynamics 365 has provisions for maintaining Quotes, Orders and Invoices that can help in calculating taxes. With in Dynamics 365, a 360-degree view of customer accounting details can be viewed right within the CRM. Let’s see how Dynamics 365 can leverage the capabilities of QuickBooks to improve its accounting:
Data Integrity Maintained
Since a lot of fields in Dynamics 365 and QuickBooks are analogous, linking them leads to accounting and sales information of a customer at one place. For instance, QuickBooks Customers can be linked with Account and Contact of Dynamics 365 so that data in the two systems are synced and information regarding these two verticals is located at one place. When both the systems work separately, there is duplicate data in both systems and mapping them accurately becomes a daunting task.
360-Degree View of Customer Accounting Information
With integration between Intuit QuickBooks and Dynamics 365 all the accounting information of a customer can be viewed right within the CRM. Therefore, Sales team can make better decisions based on customer’s purchase history and target potential customers with prospective deals. Premium customers can be offered valuable membership that can help their businesses and retain them as an esteemed customer.
Real-time data sync from Dynamics 365
As soon the Sales process is complete, details can be synced with QuickBooks for quick accounting. The updates are reflected in both systems quickly and therefore the humongous amount of time that was needed for data transfer can be used in building a better sales strategy.
Launching Right Campaigns
By bringing your customer information in Dynamics 365 CRM targeted marketing campaigns can be launched for potential leads. Analysis can be done to view which area or organization had the maximum ROI for the marketing campaigns held and what is the potential area where more campaigns need to be launched.
Seamless Business Process
With integration between Intuit QuickBooks and Dynamics 365 CRM, organizations can function smoothly and be on top of their game, extract maximum business benefits and revert to customers with baked up data immediately. Accounting dashboards can be built in Dynamics 365 to view recent Transactions, Top Customers and Pending Invoices that helps the Sales Team to take immediate actions. This expedites the entire business process and a huge roadblock which could hinder the business process is resolved with full effect.
Thus, integration of a QuickBooks with Dynamics 365 CRM can bring a steady growth to your business and helps you manage your Sales and Accounts better.
is a cloud-based application integrating leading accounting system Intuit QuickBooks and Dynamics 365 CRM. As a Microsoft Preferred Solution, it gives by synchronizing the transaction history and Aging details from QuickBooks to Dynamics 365. With InoLink tax for transactions can be calculated right within Dynamics 365 and Quotes/Orders/Invoices can be sent to QuickBooks. It enables syncing single instance of Dynamics 365 with multiple QuickBooks Company. Download InoLink from for a free trial of 15 days if you wish to view your customer’s accounting information right in the CRM.
What Is Robotic Process Automation? Part 1
Part 1 in the 4-part “Intelligent RPA” series about the evolution of robotic process automation and its potential impact on digital transformation.
RPA is the acronym for the Rugby Players Association in England, but also for robotic process automation – and that is presumably the reason you have heard a lot about it during the last year.
Indeed, IT analysts such as Gartner, Forrester, IDC, HFS Research, Everest Group, and Aragon Research; major consulting firms such as Accenture, Deloitte, EY, and McKinsey; and IT integrators such as Avanade, Capgemini, DXC Technology, HP, IBM, SopraSteria, and many others agree: RPA is a pragmatic approach for organizations to engage or foster digital transformation.
That’s why this topic deserves a closer look to clearly understand it.
Defining robotic process automation
In large organizations, people spend a lot of time interacting with the different applications in their business systems. To carry out their mission, they frequently have to re-enter or copy and paste data from one application to another or compare and verify information from two applications. Robotic process automation uses “software robots” to automate – as much as possible – tedious, mundane tasks like these.
This “automation of white-collar jobs” can free up 15% to 30% of an employee’s time, which can be used more effectively for actions bringing real value to the organization and improving the quality of customer service.
As a corollary, this automation improves employees’ comfort, and this is not the least of its advantages. The employee who spends the workday in front of computer tools will adhere better to the strategic vision of management who want to accelerate the company’s digital transformation.
Attended RPA, software assistants, or robotic desktop automation
An enterprise’s business processes involve many components in the information system. These range from database servers where data is stored, to employees’ desktops that provide access (via various applications and software solutions) to large transactional systems, client-server applications, intranet/extranet, cloud applications, CRM, ERP, ECM, and so on.
Automation can happen on the desktop, where a “software robot” executes interactions just like a human being. The robots read an application window’s contents, identify the fields containing useful data, copy them into another window, launch a transaction, and so on. While performing these tasks, the robot may, if needed, “hand over” to the person in front of the PC to make a decision based on his or her intelligence and experience. The robot can also carry out some checks on the data it handles. This gives the company additional guarantees regarding compliance with regulatory requirements and the quality of processes’ results.
This aspect of RPA, where the robot acts a software assistant for a human being and interacts with a PC while respecting the business logic, is called attended RPA or sometimes robotic desktop automation (RDA).
Its deployment is very fast, and it has no impact on the information system. It does not require modifications on applications, which continue to function without any change. As a result, RDA projects are short and their ROI is fast. It takes only a few weeks to set up an RPA robot that can save 20% of the time of tens or even hundreds of employees. And considering that the desktop will not be simplified by magic in the short term, attended RPA solutions will benefit the company for many years.
Unattended RPA or autonomous software robots
Some processes can be automated from end to end by robots installed in server farms and running without any interaction from a human being. A software robot can autonomously connect to databases to retrieve information, apply business rules, perform processes that produce new data, and inject them into other applications using their own programming interfaces (APIs). This aspect of RPA, where the robot works at the heart of the information system or in the cloud, is called unattended RPA.
However, this autonomous robot remains under the supervision of human beings. It is necessary for people to monitor the processes to ensure they are executed properly. In case of an anomaly, a human expert, a “robot supervisor,” will be able to understand the cause of the problem, correct it, and restart the robots so the processes resume where they had stopped.
Because they are installed on servers (and therefore inside the information system), unattended RPA robots require some infrastructure. And because they act directly on application data, they need to use APIs, which requires programming work. As a result, unattended RPA projects are likely to be more complex, and therefore take a little longer, especially when it comes to going live.
Clearly, organizations should consider RPA globally, taking advantage of complementary approaches. It can start on the desktops with attended RPA, focusing first on the most repetitive and time-consuming processes. These initial benefits are quick and help employees embrace the organization’s digital transformation. Then the RPA journey can be extended by implementing unattended RPA on servers to handle complex processes.
Some business processes can even benefit from a hybrid RPA approach, mixing attended and unattended robots to maximize the benefits.
RPA fosters digital transformation, and its main benefits include:
- Reduced risk thanks to better compliance
- Improved comfort at work for employees through contextual guidance
- Increased operational excellence with business process efficiency
- Reduced time to market for new offers thanks to greater agility
Artificial intelligence + RPA = Intelligent RPA?
We’ll see RPA evolve further with AI technologies. But how will RPA and AI work together? What will be the best use cases for intelligent RPA, and what are the major benefits it will provide? We will explore those questions in the next post in this series.
Learn more
For more information, visit our SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation web page.
And please join our “Pathways to the Intelligent Enterprise” Webinar Tuesday, June 11, featuring Phil Carter, chief analyst at IDC, and SAP’s Dan Kearnan and Ginger Gatling. Register here.
This article originally appeared on the SAP Analytics blog and is republished by permission.